People with severe cognitive impairments have the same rights to happiness, subjective well-being and a (best) quality of life as all others. Storytelling can contribute to delivering these rights. Getting the most out of storytelling for audiences of people with severe cognitive impairments poses a significant challenge to both storytellers and others responsible for providing ongoing care and support. This challenge arises because these cognitive impairments get in the way of communication, understanding and memory and diminish the intensity and duration of positive storytelling experiences. “Collaborative stretching” is a simple, intuitive but evidence-based strategy for enhancing storytelling events and storytelling experiences for participants with severe cognitive impairments and ultimately for enhancing their quality of life.

This is an electronic version of an article published in Storytelling, Self, Society: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Storytelling Studies Vol. 8, Issue 2, p. 85-107 (2012). Storytelling, Self, Society: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Storytelling Studies is available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/openurl?genre=article&issn=1550-5340&volume=8&issue=2&spage=85